Arriving back at The Burrow, we had a late lunch and Brooke and I went upstairs to our room to pack away our new supplies.
"I'm really grateful these trunks have an Extension Charm attached to them," I said setting my cauldron inside filled with my potions ingredients. I wasn't exactly an organized person, but I did try and keep my school supplies divided up by subject so it would be easier to grab and go when I needed them.
"I could probably fit Megie in here," stated Brooke. The cat raised her head up at the mention of her name and gave Brooke a look that said, "I dare you to try."
"Don't worry I won't," she said. The cat laid her head back down on the bed. "Today anyway." A hiss was earned for that little comment and Megie got up and strolled right out the door, her tail high in the air.
"Geez, so sensitive," I said smiling.
Brooke plopped back onto the bed, having finished her packing, and sighed.
"So, what're we going to do this afternoon?" she questioned. "It's nice and sunny outside, we should do something out there."
"OR we could stay inside where it's nice and cool," I suggested. I had sprawled out on the cool wooden floor and wasn't too keen on moving at the moment.
"Oh, quit being a lazy bum," she said, tossing a pillow and hit me in the face.
"Maybe you should try it sometime," I tossed the pillow back at her and missed.
"Oh come on!" she said, getting up and dragging me across the floor by my arms.
"Fine!" I said grudgingly getting up and following her out of the door. We walked across the hall and discovered the boy's room empty.
"They must be in Ron's room," I stated shuffling my feet up the stairs to the attic.
Not bothering to knock on the door, I pushed it open and let myself in. The room was covered wall to wall with posters of the Chudley Cannons, Ron's favorite Quidditch team, zooming about on brooms. His bed even had an orange quilt covering it that Mrs. Weasley had made for him one year.
"Oi! Care to knock?" complained Ron. He was sitting on the floor with Devin and Jeremiah playing Exploding Snap.
"Entertain us. We're bored," I said simply.
"Go entertain yourself," said Jeremiah shooing us out of the room.
"Don't wanna," Brooke said folding her arms like a child.
"Ugh. Fine," Ron said, resigning to the fact that we weren't going to leave them alone. "Let's go play Quidditch or something."
"That's that game played on broomsticks, right?" asked Devin. I'm sure Ron's chatted his ears off about it.
"Yeah, I'll explain the rules to you," said Jeremiah.
"Oh! That sounds fun!" Brooke said with her eyes twinkling with delight.
"Great idea! And we can ask Fred and George to play!" I said, clapping my hands together and walking off. Ron began protesting, but I walked off too quickly before he could lecture me on why that was a bad idea. Psh. It's a great idea.
I headed down to the twins room and knocked on the door. I wasn't going to open the door for fear of something would probably hit me in the face. Like a pie. Not that I have any experience with that or anything. Sort of. Ok, Fine. I opened the door without knocking once and I got hit in the face with a pie that had been booby-trapped to the door. On the bright side it was apple pie. Unfortunately for them, however, it was a pie recently made by Mrs. Weasley. She walloped them good for that one.
"Freddio, Georgieo, open the doorio," I sang. Fred opened the door with a face full of amusement.
"I didn't know you could write such a clever ballad," he quipped.
"One of my many talents, didn't you know?" I smiled back.
"And what need do you have of our assistance today."
"One would like to know if you would like to join us in a round of Quidditch."
"Quidditch?" said George, popping his head up. "One would be correct."
"Perfecto!" I said.
"Did someone say Quidditch?" piped a voice below us. I looked over the railing and saw Ginny sticking her head out looking up at us.
"No, you ca..." I slapped my hand over Fred's mouth.
"You can play Ginny!" I said happily. Fred licked my hand and I drew back in disgust.
"Nasty!" I said, wiping my hand on his shirt.
"We don't want her to play," argued George. "No offense, but we don't want her to get hurt."
"You be nice to your sister and just don't be so rough with her," I scolded them.
"Yes, mum," Fred said rolling his eyes.
"I'll take that as a compliment," I said. "Plus, she's grown up with six older brothers. Don't you think she can handle herself somewhat?'
George opened his mouth to say something and then promptly closed it again.
"She's got a point," he said to Fred.
"Fine," Fred sighed, "but you're watching her."
"Deal," I said. I walked back up to Ron's room and met the others halfway up the staircase joined by Percy now.
"Percy's going to be the ref," said Devin with fake happiness.
"Well, someone's got to keep you lot in line," he said with an air of importance. I rolled my eyes and walked back down the stairs again. My legs were going to look fabulous after all of this stair climbing.
By the time we got outside to where the broomsticks were kept (an old, stone outhouse made into a broom shed) Ginny was bouncing happily on the balls of her feet.
"Alright, before we go flying off into the distance we need to choose our teams," I said.
"You want I should get the straws?" asked Fred.
"I want," I replied back.
"I really want to know where he's keeping those," Jeremiah whispered to Brooke.
"Up your butt," Brooke replied with a straight face. "They're butt straws."
Everyone, except Percy, fell out laughing. There was just no topping that one.
"Butt straw?" Fred said holding out the straws to me. Wiping tears from my eyes I quickly chose a straw and tried to compose myself. After everyone had chosen a straw, we separated into our respective teams. Ginny, Fred, Jeremiah, and I were on one team and Devin, George, Brooke, and Ron were on the other.
"We need to pick a team captain," stated Jeremiah. Ginny's hand shot up in the air. Fred opened his mouth to protest and I elbowed him in the ribs.
"You can be captain, Ginny," I said. I knew I was spoiling her, but I didn't have any younger siblings to spoil of my own and she was just so adorable. I found myself suddenly relating to the elderly. I just wanted to pinch her cheeks.
We walked over to the broom shed and each of us collected a broom. The broom I grabbed was a Cleansweep Four.
"Here, you better start off with this," Ron said handing a Comet 260 to Devin. "It's not the best, but it's great for beginners."
Percy grabbed a large ball from the shed and we followed him to the makeshift Quidditch pitch in the orchard. There were two hoops made out of wire facing opposite of each other about two hundred feet apart. It was nearly half the length of an actual Quidditch pitch and the goals were only about ten feet high. The Weasley's didn't want them to go above the tree tops because weaving in and out of the tress made for good practice. It also made for quick reflexes when a stray branch popped out at you. I've been the victim of said branches once…or twice….or three times. Heh.
A large line was drawn halfway across the pitch to indicate the middle and the starting point. Percy stood in the middle of the line with the team captains, Ginny and Brooke, on either side of him. All of the other players lined up behind them in a row except for the keepers who stood in front of the goal posts. Jeremiah was the Keeper on our team and Fred, Ginny, and I were Chasers. Devin, was the Keeper for the other team and George, Brooke, and Ron were all Chasers. It was probably best that Devin was the Keeper on their team because he was new to a broomstick. He would have limited movement as a Keeper so he could concentrate more on getting used to the broom without having to try and keep up with his teammates.
"Players, mount your brooms," Percy said. "First team to reach fifty points wins."
I put my broom between my legs, kicked off gently from the ground so I would merely hover, and placed my feet on the foot pegs. We would only get a little bit higher than the goalposts during the game, so I was comfortable riding a broom. Of course, I usually stayed at about five feet anyway. If I ended up falling off, which would most likely happen, it wouldn't be near as bad like falling from ten feet.
I saw Devin was a rather shaky with his broom, but he had a determined look on his face that he would absolutely not fall off. I'm sure he was upset that he'd be missing the action as a Chaser, but there was really no helping it.
"Set!" shouted Percy. I grip my broom handle tight and lowered my body flatter.
"Go!" Percy tossed the Quaffle into the air and Ginny caught it and shot past Brooke with surprising speed. Brooke just hovered there frozen with her mouth agape. It was an improved look for her.
As Ginny barreled down toward Devin, Fred and I took off after her in an effort to catch up. Brooke, finally coming out of her stupor, started off after us. Ginny was too far ahead though, even we wouldn't be able to catch up to her.
Devin, still trying to get a feel for his broom, was caught off guard and didn't see Ginny in time to block her. She threw the ball at the hoop and it soared right past his right shoulder with ease.
"Ten points to Ginny's team!" shouted Percy in the distance.
Devin picked up the Quaffle and threw it back in, cursing his incompetence in missing it. I wished he wouldn't be so hard on himself.
George caught the Quaffle and zoomed off towards our goal with it. Brooke attempted to stay beside him, but I faked like I was going to run my broom into hers and it made her flinch and fly off course. I flew past her, and right up to George. He saw me and swiftly turned his broom, hitting me with the tail end of it, causing me fly off to the side and lose the grip on my broom. I lost control and began to plummet to the Earth with a loud scream. Goodbye cruel world.
Suddenly, a hand stretched out and quickly grabbed me by my own hand. I cried out in pain as my body came to a sudden halt throwing all of my weight onto my arm. I was surprised it didn't pull it out of its socket. I looked up and saw Fred straining to hold onto me, his face set in a grimace. I imagine his arm felt the same as mine did.
"Geez, you need to lose some weight," he said. My mouth fell open. How rude!
"Maybe you should gain some muscle!" I shot back, rather offended.
He grinned and lowered me to the ground safely. I waltzed over to where my broom had fallen, a few feet away, and mounted it once again.
"But thanks," I mumbled, as I kicked off and flew back up into the air. He flew beside me and gave me a cocky smile. Ugh. There would be no dealing with him after this.
"Ten points to Brooke's team!" we heard Percy yell.
During the fall George had somehow managed to score against Jeremiah. Ginny caught the Quaffle from Jeremiah and bobbed in and out of trees trying to shake off Ron who was close behind her. He managed to catch up to her and smacked the ball from her hand. He attempted to do a sharp turn around, but unfortunately his broom had other ideas. The older brooms we rode weren't made for sharp turns so you had to give yourself enough of a wide berth to have room to turn.
Ron dropped the ball and I was low enough to the ground where I flew over and caught it. Heading back towards their goal, I ducked under some branches and threw the ball towards Devin, which he promptly caught with ease. I noticed he was getting more comfortable with his broom.
He threw the ball back into play and it was caught by Brooke. She flew off toward our goal, but didn't notice Fred flying under her. Once he was even enough with her, he rose upward and slapped the ball from the underside, causing her to drop the ball. Ginny was ready for it and caught it with ease. Fred smirked when she caught the ball and I knew he didn't regret letting her play.
Being lighter than the rest of us, she was a lot faster and harder to catch. The makings of a good Chaser, or even a Seeker. She easily weaved in and out of the trees and lugged the ball straight at the goal. Devin missed it by mere millimeters. She turned to me and grinned brightly, having scored our second goal.
"Ginny's team earns ten points!" shouted Percy.
Ron caught the ball from Devin and tossed it to George when he noticed I was getting to close to him. I reached out for it, but it flew over my head and George caught it successfully and raced over to Jeremiah. George pitched it over towards Jeremiah and he blocked it with his foot. When he kicked the ball it propelled straight back at George and smacked him right in the face. I nearly fell off my broom again laughing. I even saw Percy cover his mouth to try and stifle a laugh. I'm sure it was pretty satisfying for him, seeing as how they tortured him in Diagon Alley that morning.
The ball fell to the ground and I shot down towards it and picked it up off the ground. Maneuvering my broom back upward I noticed Brooke heading down to try and block me off. When I attempted to veer off to the right, she grabbed the front handle of my broom throwing me off balance. What is with everyone trying to knock me off my broom today?! I noticed Fred hovering between two trees and hollered out to him.
"Fred! Catch!"
He whipped his head around at me and I clumsily tossed the ball to him. He caught it and zoomed off in the direction of their goal with Ginny right beside him.
"FOUL!" Percy shouted throwing his hand in the air. Every one of us halted and flew over to Percy.
"Foul against Brooke's team," he said looking toward her.
"For what?" she said, placing her hands on her hips.
"Blagging. You grabbed Kristin's broom. They get a penalty shot."
She folded her arms in a huff and rolled her eyes. I promptly stuck my tongue out at her. She then attempted to kick my leg, but missed. Such a violent child.
"I'll do it since I already have the ball," Fred said.
He flew over in front of Devin and stopped about fifty feet away. He zoomed off toward him and Devin stayed stock still expecting a frontal attack. When he was close enough, Fred caught him off guard and flew up and tossed the ball down below him and through the hoop.
"Ten points to Ginny's team!" shouted Percy.
So our team had thirty points and Brooke's had ten. The game was going great so far. Devin, rather frustrated at himself, pitched the ball harder than it needed to be. Ron caught it and flew off in the direction of Jeremiah. Brooke rode about seven feet away from him and he tossed the ball when he saw Ginny gaining on him. Brooke caught it, but seeing me gaining on her as well, she had to throw it directly back at him. They played a game of hot potato all the way until they reached the goal. Jeremiah didn't know who to watch and finally settled on Ron, who had the Quaffle. He quickly propelled it back at Brooke and she quickly lugged it at Jeremiah when his attention was still on Ron. It soared past his head and though the hoop.
"Ten points to Brooke's team!" Percy shouted. Brooke whooped and gave a Ron a high five.
"That was brilliant!" Ron said, rather proud of himself.
"Let's just keep it up!" Brooke said, encouraging her teammates.
Jeremiah tossed the ball to me and I bobbed in and out of the trees over to Devin. Brooke, filled with newfound courage barreled over to me. Attempting to knock the ball out of my hand, she got her broom to close to mine and accidently locked her handle with mine.
"FOUL!" we heard Percy shout in the distance. She halted in the air and glided over to him.
"What now?" she said exasperated.
"Blurting. You locked your broom handle with Kristin's."
"It was an accident!" she defended
"Accident or not, it happened and it's a foul. A penalty shot is awarded to Ginny's team."
"Now, now Brookie Cookie, it's only fair," I said.
"Shut up!" she snapped. Well, then!
Still carrying the Quaffle I flew over to Devin and stayed the same distance away as Fred had. He would be ready if I had a sudden change of direction this time. Taking a page out of Brooke and Ron's playbook I decided to use their own maneuver against them. I propelled myself forward and bobbed up and down and in and out of trees so he wouldn't know which way I would come from. Getting just the right amount of distance away I ducked down below him and tossed the ball below and behind him, scoring another goal for our team. He glared daggers at me.
"Ten points to Ginny's team!"
"Serves you right," I said. It felt good scoring against him after his little stunt he pulled this morning.
He picked up the Quaffle and pitched it directly at my face. I ducked and felt it graze the back of my head as it passed over me. George caught it before it hit the ground and raced towards our goal where Jeremiah was ready to block him again. Fred flew under him and hit the ball from its underside again, causing it to fly upward. He caught it, turned around, and headed back to their goal.
Brooke, having grown impatient, lunged at Fred ramming her broom into him causing him to fly off to the right. Didn't she ever learn?
"Dear Bob, woman! Calm yourself!" I yelled.
"FOUL!"
"That's it!" she shouted and she swooped down over to Percy. However, she had no intent of stopping and Percy took off running away from the rabid girl chasing him on a broomstick. She flew low and somehow hooked the handle of the broom onto his belt loop and lifted him in the air.
Everyone lost it. There were howls of laughter mixed with Percy's howls of pain from his Atomic Wedge. Curious as to where she could possibly be taking him, we followed her. She zoomed out of the orchard, past the garden, and the house with Percy struggling the entire way. She stopped and hovered directly over the pig pen.
"DON'T YOU DARE!" he yelped, all pride forgotten as he tried to awkwardly reach back and grab the broom handle.
I landed my broom and ran over to the stone wall of the pen. I couldn't fly in this condition. I was crying with laughter. Jeremiah had long since fallen off of his broom and laid on his back chortling.
Brooke gave him an evil grin and cackled menacingly. She dipped the tip of her broom and Percy slid off with a shriek. He fell with a noisy slash in a large pile of mud.
We were full out guffawing at this point and it made it all the worse when Percy rose up covered head to toe in mud. My cheeks hurt, my stomach hurt, and I had tears rolling down my face. Brooke landed down in the green grass and gave a proud smile.
Percy was infuriated. He tried to stalk out of the mud angrily, but it just made it all the funnier when he squished every time he took a step. The pigs were squealing and running around from having the daylights scared out of them and were running around in the pen. One of them ran straight in front of Percy and he tripped over it, falling face first, back into the mud.
Everyone was rolling. The twins were on their hands and knees pounding their fists into the ground. I felt like a white girl at a Starbucks. I couldn't even.
Finally having made his way out of the pen and dripping with mud, he stalked off toward the house muttering to himself.
"I don't think he'll ever foul you again," chortled George.
"Nope," she said simply.
"I feel like I'm going to die. I can't possibly laugh anymore," said Ginny with her arms thrown out to the side and tears stains on her rosy cheeks.
"You know he's not going to speak to us for a while," I said.
"That's a bad thing?" said Devin.
"At least it will keep him quiet about being prefect for a while," said Ron.
"I doubt it," said George. "I think he's just merely added Brooke to his hit list."
"Who else is on there?" asked Jeremiah.
"Us," said Fred gesturing to George and himself.
George sat up and directed his attention to Brooke, who was leaning against her broomstick next to him.
"Well, at least we'll have some company in detention this year," George said poking her in the ribs. She let out an uncontrollable giggle and swatted his hand away. She was VERY ticklish. George got a smirk on his face and grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her down next to him. He took both hands and tickled her sides while she squealed and squirmed to get away from him.
"Oi! Get a room!" Ron said disgusted.
"Just exploiting a weakness is all," said George lifting his hands from her. She laid on the ground next to him, trying to catch her breath.
"You think mummy will owl her parents?" Ginny asked, suddenly concerned.
"Doubt it," I replied. "Percy's to proud to let Mr. and Mrs. Weasley see him like that. He's probably trying to get as much mud off or him as possible before enters the house."
"Mum would kill him, if he tracked in mud," Ron said.
"Speaking of getting cleaned up," said Devin. "I'm going to go take a shower."
"That's not a bad idea," added Jeremiah. "We better get in there before Percy uses it." Devin and Jeremiah both got up and headed over to the house.
"We better put the brooms up," I said.
"I'll go get the Quaffle," said Ginny. She mounted her broom and took off toward the orchard.
"She's just looking for an excuse to fly longer," said Ron.
"Shush, and help us pick up the brooms," Brooke said poking him in the back with one.
After putting away our brooms we walked back to the house and into our individual rooms. Gathering my clothes together I walked into the bathroom, to take a shower myself. Jeremiah had mentioned to me in passing that Percy had already taken a shower and quickly retreated to his room without a word. I placed my clothes on the nearby cabinet and opened the curtain to start the water. I noticed Percy had cleaned up after himself thankfully. He was smug and arrogant, but he was also a clean freak. I wished I was a clean freak myself, I would procrastinate cleaning as long as I could. Of course I knew better than to do that at the Weasley's. Mrs. Weasley would have my hide.
I quickly showered and walked back into our bedroom and sat on the bed toweling my wet hair. It was my turn to have the bed tonight and I had taken no time in claiming it. I had even instructed Mr. Bobbles to keep Megie off of it, which he happily obliged. I did not want to sleep with itchy cat hair.
Grabbing one of Charlie's journals, I headed up to Ron's room and opened the door.
"Care for some company?" I asked.
"You have got to start knocking!" he yelped, quickly pulling a shirt over himself.
"Oh, it's nothing I haven't seen before," I said waving my hand dismissively. "We used to take baths together remember? Actually, I think my mom has some pictures somewhere."
"Well, they need to be burned," he said, sitting in the floor in front of his school trunk. I walked over to his bed and laid down on it.
"Watcha doing?" I asked leaning towards him. He had started grabbing things out of his trunk and laying them on the floor.
"Trying to make sure I have everything," he said counting his books. I flopped over onto my stomach and stretched out, my bare legs and feet loving the feeling of his soft quilt against them. Charlie's journal lay forgotten next to me.
"A bed is so much better than a cot," I sighed.
"Yeah, well, don't get used to mine,"
I buried my head into his pillow and looked up when I heard a squeak come from the night stand on my left. A cage rested on top of it, with an grey rat inside of it taking a drink from his water bottle.
"Oh!" I said sitting up. "I forgot about Scabbers!"
"I'm surprised he's still alive," he said nonchalantly
I opened his cage and picked him up. He was old, so his fur wasn't exactly soft like it should've been and he had bald patches and a missing toe on his right paw. I set him in my lap and began scratching his head.
"What's he doing in your room though?"
"Mum and Dad got Percy an Owl, Hermes, when he became Prefect so Percy gave him to me."
"Well that was nice of him."
"Yeah, but he's had to stay in his cage since you've been here. Brooke's cat and all."
I nodded my head knowingly. Megie would definitely love to get her claws in him. I put Scabbers back in his cage and laid back on Ron's bed with my arms behind my head. I looked out at the window and saw that the sky was turning an orange-yellow. Mrs. Weasley would be nearly finished cooking supper soon. A knock on the door resounded, drawing me from my stupor. I turned my head toward it and saw Brooke step in.
"There you are!" she said. She walked over to me and flopped on top of me. I let out an "oof" and Ron just shook his head.
"Is nothing sacred anymore?" he said, closing his trunk. I tilted my head like I was thinking deeply.
"Nope. Not really," I said.
He sighed and walked over to the door. "Well, I'm going to help mum with supper. You two. Out!"
"Le gasp! You don't trust us?" said Brooke feigning shock.
"Nope. Not really," he said mocking me.
"Fine," I said pushing Brooke's large bottom from on top of me.
We walked down stairs and passed Jeremiah and Devin, who were in the living room looking through they're school books. Entering the kitchen we saw Mrs. Weasley putting food on serving plates.
"Need any help, mum?" asked Ron.
"Yes actually. Ron could you and Kristin set the food on the table and Brooke could you set the plates and utensils?" Mrs. Weasley answered.
We wordlessly set ourselves to our tasks and had the table spread out within a few minutes. One by one the members of the household filed into the kitchen and everyone took their places at the table. The meal was ate with much vigor on our parts. We were starved from playing Quidditch all afternoon. Not to mention all of the laughing. Percy ignored us the whole time and deemed his parents were the only ones worthy of his attention at the time. It was a rather peaceful dinner come to think of it.
Afterwards everyone helped to clean up and store the leftovers (which wasn't much) and Mr. Weasley asked that we meet in the living room. Everyone found a place to sit as Mr. Weasley stood in front of the fireplace. Brooke and I sat in the window seat.
"I see that everyone's gathered around now," began Mr. Weasley. "The train leaves at eleven o'clock in the morning so I expect every one of you to be up by at least eight thirty. We'll eat breakfast then we'll be loading your luggage into the car and taking it to London. While at the train station we'll be in the amidst many muggles so I request that you please stay close to each other and cause as little attention to yourselves as possible. Fred, George, no funny business. Well, I think that's it. Off to bed now you lot."
We all got up from our seats and shuffled up to our respective bedrooms. Mrs. Weasley put the lights out behind us. Brooke and I brushed our teeth and got into our beds.
"I can't believe we're really going to Hogwarts!" she said bouncing up and down. Megie promptly scratched her on her foot to settle down.
"Fine, I'm laying down," she grumbled. The cat looked rather pleased with herself.
"I'm so excited!" I said. "But I'm super nervous too."
"Me too! I hope we're in the same house!"
"Even if we're not, we've got to hang out as much as possible."
"Definitely! I don't know how I'm going to sleep tonight."
"By closing your eyes."
"Ha, ha," Brooke said sarcastically.
There was a light rap on the door and Mrs. Weasley poked her head in.
"Night, girls," she said flicking her wand and blowing out the candle.
"Night!" we both said in unison.
I rolled over towards the window and gathered the blanket up to my shoulders. So comfy. Mr. Bobbles was sleeping on the headboard of the bed tonight and I went to sleep hearing his soft hooting